The first Nereda plant in South America celebrates a year in operation

28-07-2017

Royal HaskoningDHV’s Nereda® technology has left a positive impact in Brazil. A legacy project from the 2016 Olympic Games held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Deodoro WWTP, the largest plant built in the world as of the writing of this article, is cleberating its first year anniversary in operation.

Built by BRK Ambiental – Nereda license for Brazil and a shareholder of the plant’s end-user Foz Águas 5 – the new plant treats the wastewater generated by 40 per cent of the residents of the city’s heavily populated West Zone, a number which stands at around 480,000 people, and has almost ten times the capacity of the original treatment plant. Additionally, Foz Águas 5 expects that the new plant will dramatically reduce the untreated flow of domestic sewage directly discharged into the local rivers and Guanabara Bay. In February 2017, the former wastewater treatment facility was fully decommissioned and all incoming sewage to the plant was been treated by the Nereda installation.

One year, the Nereda plant has more than doubled the treated flow, with an increase from 9,000cbm per day to an approximate 25,000cbm per day, meaning that less sewage is now directly discharged into the rivers. Currently, two Nereda reactors are in operation, and both are excellently. Foz Águas 5 is also starting a program to monitor the quality of the water in the river to show the benefits of the current treatment and the positive impact on the public health in the West Zone.

“Our operations team was very excited to be operating the first Nereda plant in Brazil,” Ícaro Maltha, the operations manager from Foz Águas 5, said. “The Nereda reactors have been operating stably with very good performances, just as we were expecting. We are still improving our sewage network and going forward we expect to maintain the same good effluent quality we have now while also increasing our capacity.”

“With seven Nereda plants now operating, under construction or design in South America, we are delighted by the positive results being recorded at Deodoro a year after start-up,” João Almeida from Nereda team, Royal HaskoningDHV, said. “Nereda is the ideal sustainable and cost-effective solution for wastewater treatment and we are very proud that our technology is helping to enhance the lives and health of thousands of Rio de Janeiro’s residents. Deodoro plant is a very good showcase of what the Nereda technology can do.”